Louise Hart was joined by WCS athletes Beth Lloyd, Katie Bartlet and Sarah Bonar to race a championship coxless four at the recent BUCS 4s and 8s Head for Loughborough Uni. Despite only being able to have a few sessions together due to uni commitments(?!?) they destroyed the field to win by 15 seconds over Imperial. Loughborough topped the medal table last year at BUCS regatta and this result suggests they will be in strong contention to repeat this for a second year.

Last weekend the NRC girls arrived at the lake to a sea of Cambridge blue. Cambridge were up for the weekend to get some training in alongside another 8+. We had a series of pieces on both days, allowing all crews to learn and develop in a competitive environment. Cambridge are coming into their peak for the boat races in just over 3 weeks time, whilst the Nottingham crew is training for the Women's Eights Head on the 9th March. A lot was learnt over the weekend for all crews and we hope to put this into practice at Trent Head on the 3rd March.

Last weekend Laura, Ellie, Nikki and Louise travelled up to Boston for the second GB assessment and small boats head, both held over 5km. After the first water trial was cancelled due to adverse weather forecast, this was the first opportunity for many to show their water speed. On arrival they were greeted to a lightly frozen river, which was quickly broken up by some launches. A beautiful day emerged, despite the chilly -2 degree temperatures with slight tailwind conditions promised fast times. Laura and Ellie raced first, with Laura coming in a very strong 17th, beating some notable names who raced internationally last season. Ellie was racing in the BUCS small boats head and put in a good performance and gained valuable experience of racing down the trials course.

In the second division Nikki was due to race the GB trial, whilst Louise was vying for a medal in the BUCS competition. Unfortunately both girls were forced to withdraw after catching a sickness bug overnight, causing a lot of frustration for both after a good run up and promising times clocked in the weeks prior to the race.

The group now turn their focus to the Womens' Head of the River Race in London where they aim to improve on their 5th place finish from last year.

In a blink of an eye a twelfth of 2013 seems to have snuck by already. We seem to be stuck in a flood - freeze cycle, resulting in the ergs feeling (mistakenly) more loved than usual, whilst spiders in our boat bay believe we have built them all lovely carbon fibre shelters. The beginning of January was taken up with training camps. On the back of her excellent 3^rd place finish at the ergo test in the first set of GB trials Laura was invited to the sunny climes of Portugal on the GB senior team training camp. The rest of the group stayed in Nottingham and put in some solid (if slightly colder) training in preparation for the 5km ergo test. The training clearly paid off, with almost the entire group claiming hard earned PBs. We were due to race at Boston Head, although this was unfortunately cancelled due to the recent flooding so next up is the second set of trials on the 9^th February, raced in singles over 5km in Boston. We also have athletes racing for their respective universities at the rescheduled BUCS small boats head, held in conjunction with the GB trials. Sights are then set on the Women's Eights Head, where we have successfully won a pennant every year since the club was founded- no pressure then!